SUNDAY MERCURY WROTEMadcap Finish Sees Rare Town ReverseLeaders Coleshill Town slumped to their first league defeat of the season as Rugby Town struck late for a 1-0 win. And to make matters worse, the visitors had two players sent off. Chances were few and far between but as the game went into added time, Coleshill's Jesse Race saw Red for a pull on a Rugby player. The Referee awarded a free kick just outside the area and then showed a second yellow card to Rob Evans for his protests. To compound a madcap few minutes, Josh Ruff fired the resulting kick into the back of the net for Rugby's winner.

MATCH REPORTWhat a difference four days makes. On Tuesday Worcester City and Coleshill Town produced a six goal spectacle that was well worth the admission fee. Fast forward and Rugby Town v Coleshill Town was rubbish. Coleshill will struggle to recover from this game, not just because it was the first defeat of the season but suspentions and injuries will hit them hard. Gio Dainty was injured during the warm up and was withdrawn from the team sheet. Jorna Moulton and Joe Cole both had to be replaced with barely a quarter of the game gone and Jesse Race and Rob Evans' dismissals will result in them missing games. A paper thin squad will be tested to the limit. One small consolation is that Town now don't have a mid-week game due to their opponents, Haughmond, drew in the FA Cup and their replay will take preference.

This was a game of few chances but what little action there was came from the home team, Coleshill never tested the Rugby keeper once in the whole 90 minutes. Ruff hit the bar, Paul Hathaway saved from Kolodynski and Wiggins-Thomas shot over when well placed. The home team should have been in front by the break but Coleshill had survived their worst 45 minutes of the season.

If anything the game went downhill and chances were scarce. Wiggins-Thomas shot over when free on goal and in a similar position Hathaway saved at his feet. Belcher shot over from well inside the box but just as it looked as though Coleshill had got away with it, it all went pear shaped. In injury time Anton Astley was caught in possession, Jesse Race tugged a shirt and a free kick was awarded right on the edge of the 18 yard box. The referee produced a Red card for Race which was really harsh, and then he showed Rob Evans a yellow and as this was his second, he was off as well. Still after a game of dreadful finishing surely Coleshill could cope for the remaining few minutes. No! Josh Ruff saw a gap in the wall and hit a hard and low shot straight as an arrow into the far corner of the net. That summed up the "action". Coleshill defeated but still top of the league and off to Shepshed next Saturday, their seventh away game in a row.

Josh Ruff's stoppage time free-kick earned Rugby a thoroughly deserved win over league leaders Coleshill Town at Butlin Road. Ruff’s last gasp free-kick inflicted a first league defeat of the season on the North Warwickshire visitors and meant Rugby’s accomplished performance on the day earned its due reward.The hosts named an unchanged starting line-up from the comfortable win at Rocester four days previously, and they took the early initiative with another Ruff free-kick smashing back off the woodwork early on. Tevin Shakespeare volleyed over and David Kolodynski also headed one off-target as the one way traffic continued, with Ruben Wiggins-Thomas then seeing his header cleared to safety by Anton Astley. Kolodynski was denied by a decent stop from Paul Hathaway after he fired one in from a tight angle, whilst Wiggins-Thomas’s rising effort flew just over, as Valley dominated the opening twenty minutes of the game in particular. Both Trey Brathwaite and Ruff put their chances wide of the frame, with Coleshill’s only brief moment of threat in the first half coming late on when Reece Leek almost got in behind Town’s back-line. The match followed pretty much the same pattern after the restart, although Joe Halsall’s on-target header did provide some action for Rugby keeper Lewis Gwilliams in the new period’s opening minutes. However the opportunities continued to come the home team’s way as the half progressed, and Shakespeare blazed wildly over from a good position, with Ruff shooting wide after some nice skill on the wing from Wiggins-Thomas. Sean Castleton headed over before Wiggins-Thomas missed a gilt-edged chance when he also missed the target after he had been put through by an incisive pass from Jamie Hall.Substitute Sam Belcher was another to fail to take advantage of a good opportunity to break the deadlock when he headed over from ten yards, but with ninety minutes already on the clock, the game’s decisive moment came after Wiggins-Thomas was pulled back by Jesse Race as he was about to run through on goal again. Race was shown the red card for the illegal challenge with fellow defender Robert Evans following him down the tunnel after receiving his second yellow of the match for complaining about the decision. The resulting free-kick from just outside the penalty area gave Ruff the chance to display his set-piece prowess once more, and he duly stepped up and powered a low strike past the wall and Hathaway into the bottom corner of the net to the joy of his team-mates.